Living Death by Graham Masterton

that he’d been carrying the hurley along with his shotgun, and that the victim had snatched it from him, but we pointed out to him how unlikely this was. It would have been fierce awkward for him to be carrying a shotgun in one hand and a hurley in the other. Not only that – even if he really was carrying the both of them, why did he allow the victim to get close enough to snatch the hurley, when he was also holding a shotgun? And how did the victim manage to get so far away with it before he shot him, and how come the victim was facing him when he fired?’
    ‘What did he say to all of that?’ asked Katie.
    ‘He retracted his first explanation, and said that he was under such stress that he was confused, and that maybe he hadn’t been carrying the hurley after all. When we asked him again how the victim had managed to lay his hands on it, he said he plain couldn’t remember.’
    ‘How about you, Terry?’ asked Katie. ‘Do you have any theories?’
    ‘I don’t have a bull’s notion, ma’am, to be honest with you,’ said Inspector O’Brien. ‘But Sergeant Doherty talked to Cassidy’s wife, and he came away with the very strong impression that Cassidy wasn’t telling us the truth. Not the whole truth, any road.’
    ‘Why’s that?’
    ‘She was totally in pieces, that’s what he said.’
    ‘Come on, that’s understandable, surely. Her husband had just killed a man, and all of their valuable dogs had been stolen. I think I’d be more than a little upset, too, if I was her.’
    ‘I don’t know – Doherty reckoned there was more to it than that. She was crying and shaking so much that she could hardly get a word out, and her face was bruised, too, although she kept trying to hide it from him with her hands. He didn’t want to push her any further, like, because she was so distressed, and he didn’t want to be accused of harassment. But I’d say she needs talking to again, preferably by a woman officer.’
    ‘I see,’ said Katie. She sat back in her chair, thinking hard. Then she said, ‘Did anybody else get a sconce at these dognappers? I mean, apart from the Cassidys?’
    ‘Nobody,’ said Inspector O’Brien. ‘Well, that was hardly surprising at four o’clock in the morning, right out there in back of leap. We’ve checked all the CCTV cameras on the main roads between Kinsale and Clon, but there’s no trace of a white van or a Range Rover, which is what Eoin Cassidy said they were driving, so they must have come and gone by some back route. That’s always assuming he wasn’t lying to us.’
    Katie said: ‘All right, Terry. Detective Dooley’s put out feelers about the dogs around the city. You know, to pet-shops and breeders and vets. I have to say that dognapping doesn’t rank very high on my list of priorities, just at the moment. If there wasn’t such a strong chance that it could help us to identify our victim I’d put the dogs under “file and forget”. But I think you’re right. It sounds like there’s more to this than meets the eye. For all we know, there may have been something personal between him and this Eoin Cassidy, and this dognapping story is just a blind.’
    A new message text popped up on her computer screen from Inspector Noonan. She paused to read it, and then she said, ‘Listen, Terry, I’ll tell you what, I’ll come down to Ballinroe East myself and talk to Cassidy’s wife.’
    ‘You mean yourself in person, like?’
    ‘Yes, me in person. Apart from anything else, I’d like to take a sconce at where this shooting took place. What’s the time now? I can be down there with you by half-past four.’
    ‘Are you sure about that, ma’am?’
    ‘You said yourself she needed a woman to talk to her. I’ll bring Detective Scanlan with me, too. She has a very sympathetic way with her, and it’ll be good experience for her.’
    ‘All right, then, that’s grand,’ said Inspector O’Brien. ‘I’ll meet you outside the kennels there in – what? –